Sunday, September 03, 2006

The last survivor of the fateful ride on November 22, 1963 has died. Nellie Connally, age 87, was the widow of the former governor of Texas, John Connally. She and the governor were in the limousine with President Kennedy and his wife when the shots rang out, hitting her husband and killing the President.

Nellie Connally died in her sleep over night Friday night. She was living in Austin, Texas, where she had moved a year ago from Houston. It was a very sudden and unexpected death, since she had been active the last few days.

Mrs. Connally had these memories of that faithful day in history:

Connally had said the most enduring image she had of that day in November 1963 in Dallas was of a mixture of blood and roses.

"It's the image of yellow roses and red roses and blood all over the car... all over us," she said in a 2003 interview with

The Associated Press. "I'll never forget it. ... It was so quick and so short, so potent."

She had just turned to the President and told him he could never say that Dallas didn't love him. Then, the shots rang out.

Mrs. Connally is also a breast cancer survivor. She had breast cancer in 1970 and celebrated her 10th anniversary with fellow survivors on her 80th birthday in 1980. She is survived by one daughter and two sons.